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Welcome to the 3rd annual Halloween episode, Episode 26. This time around we pay tribute to Harry Houdini who left this mortal coil on Halloween back in 1926. In addition to the stupefying feats of conjuring and illusion he was best known for, Houdini spent 30 years exhaustively researching spiritualism and the paranormal. Sitting with and studying the techniques of the best known mediums of the day, and ultimately being unconvinced that the were capable of their grandiose claims.

Welcome to Episode 25, once again it has been too long… This episode features some potentially landmark news from the world of Cryptozoology, but first things first…

Out of the gate we discuss the bizarre affliction that has come to be known as Morgellons disease. This condition, as yet unrecognized by the medical establishment, includes such symptoms as the growth of multi-colored fibers from the body that have been reported to move autonomously, and strange crystalline or granular residue that appears within lesions all accompanied by the feeling of insects crawling under the skin. The CDC has begun lookinginto it after several years of requests from those that suffer from it. However in some medical circles it continues to be looked at as a psychological rather than physiological condition. Then there are those that see the condition as a result of something more nefarious.

After that we take a look at a set of core components by which hauntings might be judged in order to come up with some type of standardized scientific perspective on what occurs in a haunting scenario. Along the way we touch a bit on Patternology and the Fortean perspective of holistic review rather than compartmentalized observation.

Finally, a piece I had to re-record after some breaking news today altered the story dramatically. Bigfoottracker.com, now working in cooperation with Searchingforbigfoot.com have announced that they have a Bigfoot corpse in their possession, and will be presenting their collected evidence on August 15th at a press conference in Palo Alto, CA. The creature is said to have been discovered in Northern Georgia, and additionally live creatures were also seen in the area at the time. This has been a twisted tale that first appeared on Cryptomundo.com about a month ago. Since that time several evidence free, taunting videos were posted and removed by the members of Bigfoottracker, and the alleged pathologist they had reviewing the corpse was found to be a fraud. The group admitted to hoaxing the pathologist story, but maintained they did have a body. Today a press release was issued fleshing out that claim, and there has been a leak of a photo. The story was covered by local papers but I didn’t see much else in the way of mainstream coverage, but I suspect that will be changing very soon. The photo is compelling, and I look forward to hearing more details from the press conference.

That’s all for now, I will hopefully have some additional information on the Sasquatch story in the coming days. I’m also hoping to clear out some of my back log of stories by updating the site more frequently between episodes of the show.

Episode 23 has arrived… tin foil hats are optional but fashionable. This time we take a peek at the life of Thomas Dyott. Dyott amassed a sizable fortune selling patent medicines under such tantalizing names as Roberton’s Infallible Worm Destroying Lozenges & Vegetable Nervous Cordial. The fortune was sizable enough to enable him to build a “utopian” village, called Dyottville (what else?) that conveniently allowed him to skirt labor laws to perpetuate his business.

From there we peek behind the curtain of opportunist psychiatry and look at the phenomenon of Spirit Release, the process of psychiatric exorcism. In fairness to the recent stories I’ve done on the exorcism/possession upswing (here’s another one), I thought we’d look at some charlatans of a different color. As well as a brief overview we look at the case of Askinra, a spirit that reportedly tormented a man who was possessed by the spirit when he was murdered in a past life.

Finally we look at the Mormon theory that Bigfootis actually the earthly incarnation of the biblical Cain. It is accepted among some within the church that Bigfoot is in fact the doomed Cainmilling about the earth as penance for the murder of his brother forever wracked with misery and virtually immortal.

Next up we take a look at the legacy of John “Goat Gland” Brinkley. Brinkley was a medical huckster that made a fortune off the idea that goat testicles were an excellent cure for virility issues. He became a multi-millionaire during the Great Depression peddling this idea, and even made a couple failed attempts at the Governorship of Kansas.

Finally, we look at George Daynor’s Palace of Depressionin New Jersey. It’s tale of determination built from scraps in a swampy auto graveyardthat became a monument to perseverance and hard work during the Great Depression. Its eccentric creator however ended up in a paupers grave, the victim of his own ambition and promotional vision.

Welcome to episode 18, some of the little improvements I have been hoping to do for awhile finally got taken care of, so hopefully you’ll like those.

This time out we look at the legacy of Mary Toft, she was involved in a hoax in 1726 that drew the attention of the King of England and inspired perhaps the most famous of any trick in a magicians repertoire. Her story is outlined further in the book “The Girl Who Gave Birth To Rabbits: A True Medical Mystery,” which I am hoping to check out before too long.

Finally we take a look at the theory of palingenesy, the alchemical idea inspired by the work of Greek philosopher Lucretious that sought to explain ghosts and apparitions chemically, rather than metaphysically. The thought was that a body’s form resided in its salts, and by applying heat to those salts, you could regenerate the form of a dead or destroyed plant or animal as an apparition. This one is pretty interesting and I have been meaning to cover it for a few weeks so I hope you find it curious.

Greetings again – after a long hiatus, the Spookatorium has lit the porch lanterns once more. The show runs about 78 minutes this time, and hopefully I’ll be able to get on a schedule here that allows me to keep regular hours once more. Many thanks to those of you who inquired when the show would be back, and a big thanks to American Sinner for getting in touch and saying hello after hearing one of their tracks on the show. They have a new record out which you can pick up through the band at http://www.americansinner.com/

Like this:

The Spookatorium has transformed into a formidable snow fort this week to shield all comers from the mind numbing deluge of advertising and rosy cheeked urchins… so, mix your hot chocolate into that day old coffee languishing in the pot and gather round the space heater…. – Prof. Gruntsplatter